Your Living Legacy

When my father passed away in 2019, there were so many memories about our small Welsh community that were lost forever. What if there was a way to preserve your stories for future generations?

Etched for Eternity

Memora is a concept that uses ground-breaking technology to store your memories for thousands of years, bringing the human touch to digital information. It can withstand being boiled, frozen and scratched, and holds 1TB of data.

An Heirloom for all Humans

Customize your Locket with etched illustrations for every personality type, as well as initials and a short message on the outer rim, and preserve your legacy in a timeless and powerful pendant.

A Pedestal for your Pendant

Make the experience the centrepiece of your space through a minimal Pedestal that reads the Locket's content, and brings it to life with refracting light.

Meaningful Memories

Experience the memories in an immersive VR world, brought to life by an AI storyteller through generative music, movement and lighting. Reminisce in nostalgia, or put yourself in your ancestor?s shoes, with this memory storage system.

An Issue of Cultural Dilution

Through speaking with the elderly community in my Welsh-speaking town, and with historian Dr Dafydd Roberts and Archaeologist Andrew Perkins, it became clear that minority cultures are slowly dying out, and with digital storage becoming corrupt after 20 years there is no way for most people to store their memories in any meaningful way.

Speaking with Jeweller Rosie Mell and Digital Jewellery Researcher Nantia Koulidou, I found that the solution to cultural dilution might lie in digital jewellery. A recent breakthrough technology by Microsoft promises to store information in glass for thousands of years, withstanding boiling, freezing and scratching. Could this be the answer to storing our memories for future generations?

Validating the Theory

To test how people would feel about wearable memories, I created a range of props and role-played how they would interact with them.
To make the props, the colour tests were moulded in resin, the foam and brass form experiments were turned on a lathe, and the to-scale models were 3D printed.
From this, it was clear that a digital locket can have a strong emotional effect on people, and could be a desirable fashion accessory.

Design Process

Storing your Memories

Create your Albums...

Organise photos, videos, music and audio into memories. Missing data can be auto-generated by AI for a seamless experience, inspired by iOS Photo Memories.

...in 1TB of Etched Data

1TB of data is laser-etched into hundreds of microscopic layers into glass, using Microsoft?s glass storage technology, which is currently in development.

Lock it in a Locket...

The digital Locket's key shape acts as a visual clue that you should use it to unlock what's inside, and can be stored in a sleek, minimal necklace.

...with 16 Personalities

Based on the Myers-Briggs personality types, there are 16 abstract illustrations that represent everyone, which is 'minted' on the coin head through laser etching.

Experiencing your Key

The Reading Plinth...

This sturdy and energetic form throws focus onto the Locket above. It is rotationally symmetrical so that everyone can be around it. There are no buttons, and it can all be controlled via VR.

...That Giveth Light

Inspired by 3D Etched Glass, the key's etchings reflect projected light from the reader, mirroring the memory content and bringing it to life.

An Immersive VR World...

Inspired by the spirit world in the video game ABZU, the VR memory exhibit is a world made of light, mimicking the style of the personal illustration.

...With an Immersive Story

Inspired by No Man's Sky's talking orb, the speaker lights up and deforms with the VR memory's content. Missing media is auto-generated by AI in the same emotion as the story.

Conclusion

Is Memora the answer to bringing the human touch to digital media? My research suggests it could be, though without the resources to make this product a reality I can only hope that someone will be inspired by this project to create something similar. I can only hope that I could work with Microsoft on this project one day to make it a reality!

I really hope to see a product like this in my lifetime - one that can promote creating something once that can be reused for generations, that allows future generations to learn from us and allows the youth to feel more connected to older generations. Until then, feel free to contact me if you are working on making this a reality!